rjgimp wrote:RJ Howell wrote:I'm hoping to have the truck bed off and have my rear bumper, sliders and frame built.
So, are you replacing the stock rear bumper with something of your own design or relocating it or...?
You already are stripping down to bare frame. With foam construction and your minimal steel skeleton you could fairly easily extend the frame and bumper rearward and add as much as a couple feet of floor space. As long as you keep the heavy stuff stored forward of the axle (think water tanks, batteries, etc) most of what you would need to support on such an extension besides the structure itself is your own weight walking around back there.
Thank you for you interest and input!
Truck process will be front to rear. Front coils & shocks, the strip of the bed and do the leaf add & shocks back there. From that point I can truly determine overall lenght. The OEM bumper will be replaced by something that makes sense for clearance and real protection. Probably something minimalistic such as 1.5 x 1.5 tubular to work as a slider as well as hold the lights. I probably should start drawing that up as well. The side body slider's will be of the same material and ever possibly the front bumper..
I like the angle of the back and distance as drawn, yet as I strip off the bed and work out exact heights, I may just extend a bit, probably just inches though. Weight forward (closer to axle) means I'm going under the unit and mounting in the frame. I may need to go that way yet hope not to. Once I go low with tanks, I'm stuck needing a pump to get that water up into the unit. I'm thinking about just how I could get most of my water needs with gravity feed. I like theses 2.5 gallon carboys https://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/S-15648/Jugs/Carboy-2-1-2-Gallon and could just bring one in at a time to counter use, yet how cool would it be to keep it outside (in the rear storage) and plumb it in!!
I know I will need a gray water tank under. Also trying to figure what could be an under fresh water to use with the shower and a small pump dedicated to that.. Oh, so many choices...
A little more of the thoughts running circles in my mind. Welcome to the craziness!